Mazda Miatas are very good for a lot of things. They’re great daily drivers, great track cars, even great for drifting if you really know your way around that short wheelbase. But, like anything that does well in competition, a meta emerges — you need these coilovers, this suspension setup, this weight reduction, this limited-slip rear end. The paths laid out before a Miata owner are well-trodden, and require little creativity to follow.
Luckily for those of us with joy left in our hearts, not every Miata has to be so serious. Some owners care not what the greater car community has decided are appropriate use cases for the MX-5, and instead build their Mazda as they see fit. There are still Miata owners out there willing to jack an NA up on off-road tires, slap a turbo on the intake and feed it with a snorkel, and clamp a roof rack to the ever-so-sought-after OEM hardtop, and for that we should all be thankful.
Look at his face
This Miata is built to be something different. It looks at all the things that forumgoers say Miatas are supposed to be, all the “correct” ways to build an NA, and chooses a different route. Look at that massive front bumper, with its winch and yellow fogs. This is a bad track car. It’s a bad drift car. It’s almost certainly a worse daily driver than a stock NA. But it’s something interesting, it’s what its owner wanted without concern for what’s “right” or “wrong.” I love that.
More car owners should do this. No matter how specific your car’s intent is, either from the factory or from the aftermarket following it builds, you can always do whatever you want with it forever. Build your Miata to be an off-roader, a drag car, an exoskeleton on long-travel suspension set up to jump dunes. Never forget that it’s your car, no matter what the forums say.
